Australian Online Casino Tournaments

All the online casinos that we have recommended regularly host online casino tournaments in addition to offering games that you play against the house. This is one way of fostering activity amongst players. Online casino tournaments give you a different kind of gambling experience. This section of the Australian Casino Gambling web site is a primer on online casino tournaments. You will get information on what and how and why of online casino tournaments here.

What are online casino tournaments?

Online tournaments are played on a game designated by the casino. It is almost always an online pokie, but games like blackjack have been used. All players who pay the entry fee and register for the online tournament are given a starting stack of chips of the same amount. Each player is allowed to play for the same duration. Suppose that a daily tournament runs from 00:01 hours to 23:59 hours on a given day and the playing time allotted to a player is 15 minutes. Then anytime during that day a player can use his or her 15 minutes. The objective is to use the given chips to wager and try and end up with as large a chip amount as possible. After the tournament is over, all participating players are ranked in order of their final balance on a leader board. The designated top players share the prize pool as specified in the tournament rules.

The players do not take home the final chip balance. That remains with the online casino. The winners only take home a share of the prize pool. In order to win you do not have to necessarily increase your chip balance. But you have to have a final balance that is greater than that of other players.

How online casino tournaments work?

If the online tournament has already begun, then it will read “In Play”. You can register and immediately avail your given time. You have the option of deferring your play till any time before the tournament ends. Each tournament listing has four tabs that you must go through before registering. The General tab gives the entry fee, the basic tournament information and the online pokie on which it is played. The Prize tab gives the distribution of the prize pool. The Players tab gives the current position of the leader board. The most important tab is the Rules.

You have to first log in at your online casino and from the Games Menu select Multi-Player & Tournaments. You then enter the Tournaments sub category and click on the icon there. This will open up the list of all online casino tournaments available for registering at that time. Some of these will specify that the tournament starts after such and such a time. This means that you cannot actually play these online tournaments now, but you can register your entry. There is a maximum limit to the number of players that can participate in an online tournament. So it makes sense to secure your entry and then come back to play later. The entry fee will be debited to your account when your register.

What are the different types of online casino tournaments?

Online casino tournaments can be classified in different ways. Freerolls are those online tournaments that do not charge an entry fee. Here the prizes tend to be smaller. Online tournaments that charge an entry fee are often referred to as buy-ins. Online tournaments can be classified according to the nature of the prize pools. In some tournaments the online casino announces a fixed amount for distribution. In other tournaments the prize pool consists of the pot collected through the entry fees.

The online casinos we recommend offer some special types of scheduled online tournaments. The Reloader tournaments are daily single round events. The Reloader tournaments allow you to re-buy. If you are not satisfied with your score you can pay the re-buy fee and start again. Your highest score in any of the re-buy cycles will be counted. The Extender tournaments are also daily single round events. In addition to re-buys you can buy add-ons. In this case the score of your add-on cycle will be added to the earlier score. The Survivor is a multiple-round knock out tournament. A proportion of the players are eliminated at the end of each round. The remaining players move into the next round with the scores set to zero. Players need to survive the final round in the prize positions to win. This is a fast paced tournament with no add-ons or re-buys.

Why play in online casino tournaments?

There are several reasons why you should participate in online casino tournaments. They add to the variety of online gambling. They increase interaction amongst online casino players.

Playing online tournaments is the lowest risk casino gambling. The most you stand to lose is the entry fee, which in most cases would be around AU$5. And if you manage to be high enough in the leader board, you will win a share of the prize pool. Freeroll online tournaments can be used by new players to build a bankroll. You do not pay to participate and when you win you can use the prize to wager on the casino games.